My Life

Monday, February 29, 2016

Last time I shared before and after x-rays and was doing physical therapy to get my leg back up to speed. I was nervous, because I had expected to have to work harder at physical therapy, or do more of it, or do it for longer than I ended up doing it for.

But they said I'd made really good progress, and I didn't go to all that many physical therapy visits in total. But it seemed to work ok, at week #12 I went to Seattle and, while it might not have been the best idea, I played a 3 day ultimate tournament!

I wasn't fully healed at that time, and I was FAR from full speed, but I managed to play frisbee all three days. Now, almost a year later, I'm pleased to report that my hip is doing GREAT! I had taken a league season or two off, but I've been playing outdoor league on Wednesdays and indoor league on Fridays for a few months now. While I'm out of shape, my hip is holding up fantastically.

Yesterday I went to the park to play Sunday Pickup, and there were a TON of people out there -- most of whom I didn't even know. I ran a bunch there and went home feeling absolutely terrific!

Over the last few years I have gained some weight and got more and more out of shape. It was easy to blame my crappy hip, and after surgery it was easy to use recovery as an excuse, but a few months ago I finally got fed up with weighing over 190 pounds. I started counting calories using MyFitnesspal, and found that I was consuming about 2200 calories a day. That was obviously too much, so I decided to cut it down with a goal of about 1750 calories a day. Using that goal for a while, I noticed I wasn't really making any progress losing weight, so about a week ago I decided to step things up and limit myself to 1200-1300 calories a day.

It was a little tough at first, feeling hungry when I would normally just get a snack, but that passed pretty quickly. I've started ordering less food at a time, like at Subway I normally eat a 12" sandwich, now I just order a 6" sandwich instead. and I've cut out almost all candy, cookies, and other goodies. I'm trying to limit soda to just a couple a week as well.

All that seems to be starting to work, and I think I might have started to lose some weight finally. I'm still over 190 pounds, but perhaps if I keep this up I'll soon be down to the low 180s. Ideally I'd like to be back around 175, where I spent the first half of my adult life.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Well, it's been 7+ weeks since the surgery. I've had about 5 visits to Physical Therapy, plus the guy that came to my house a few times right after the surgery. I'm no longer using the cane, and I'm walking pretty good.

I promised before and after X-Rays, so let's see if I can deliver on that:

Before

After

So you can see, I now have a bionic hip!

I'm starting to ease back into some activity. I'm trying to get to the gym to continue the PT stuff I was doing, and I'm starting to try some frisbee - nice and easy, as I don't really want to F anything up. But I do want to see if I can get to a place where I can play at Potlatch next month, even if just a little bit.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

It's been another week, and I'm a lot more ambulatory. I have pretty much given up on using the walker, and have switched to a (stylish?) cane.

I have set up some outpatient physical therapy which I hope will help my leg muscles get back to where they should be. Currently some of the nerves aren't firing, which means I've got an area which I can't really feel, and when I flex my leg muscles, there's a section that just doesn't go (looks weird).

I still don't have the x-rays, but I'll be getting them in the next couple of days. I will post before and after x-rays because they look pretty cool.

Speaking of cool, here's an example of the implant that is in my leg!

It's tough to do stuff without breaking the precautions they gave me - don't bend my hip more than 90 degrees, don't cross mid-line with my right knee, and don't turn my right leg inward. But I'm doing the best I can, and so far I don't think I've dislocated my new joint.

Next weekend I get on a plane, which will be a wholly new experience. They're giving me an "implant card" - a document I can carry to put the TSA at ease. Of course, I've heard at least 1 story where someone carrying such a card was told "anyone can make a card!" I fear I may need to start getting to airports earlier, which is really not my style.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

I just turned 40 years old, and for my birthday I gave myself a new hip! Holy shit... I'm 40 years old, and I just had hip replacement surgery. Everything about that sentence sounds wrong to me...

40 years old? Really? Where did the time go?

And wait, what? HIP REPLACEMENT? WTF?

I've had an issue with my hip for several years. Probably my whole life actually. I don't know fr sure, but I suspect I've had a Slipped Epiphysis, which led to the wearing down of the cartiledge in my right hip to the point where there's just nothing left. Degenerative Joint Disease. Arthritis. God, that sounds like an old person thing!

Oh yeah, I just turned 40. I am old. But old enough for a hip replacement?

Well, for the last 3 years, it's been a huge hassle to do simple things like tie a shoe, I've been walking with a limp, and I've been unable to run - making Ultimate a bit challenging. I finally decided that being able to walk, and reclaim some portion of my life, was worth the possibility of having to re-do this operation later down the road. So I got some better insurance, made an appointment, and last Friday I went under the knife...

... so far so good, I guess. The surgery seems to have gone very well, and everyone's saying my recovery should be great since I'm doing so well - I'm sure that's because I'm only 40, whereas most people recovering from a hip replacement are in their 70s.

Actually, the surgeon said that my bones were very strong - that he hadn't seen bones that strong in a year. I assumed that was again because I'm younger than his average patients, but he said no, it was because I've been active/athletic.

So yeah... new hip. I hope to get a copy of the x-ray, because it looks pretty cool. Maybe I'll post before & after x-rays :)

I'm looking forward to being able to walk without a limp, and move my leg properly, and tie my shoe. It'll be a little while, but now that the surgery is done I'm a lot closer than I have been in the last 3 years!

Monday, October 14, 2013

This time last year I mentioned that I'd been robbed, for the second time in only a few months. It was all very disheartening, annoying, and all of that, and I'm sure I whined a lot when it happened.

As it turns out, it doesn't feel any less bad to be robbed AGAIN a year later!

Last Tuesday I got a call from my roommate when he arrived home to find his doors open, my home rustled through (more thoroughly this time), and the following items missing:
* The TV Grandma left me
* My laptop computer
* A bag containing an iPad and a bunch of prototypes (which are completely useless to anybody but me)
* John's prescription medication (for blood sugar and blood pressure)
* A couple DVDs (oddly they cherry picked DVDs here and there from John's relatively large collection).

They went through my closet and took a duffle bag containing all my camping gear, and dumped it all out on my bed only to use the bag - which is weird, as they left the shoulder strap, and the bag wasn't in the best shape.

I really don't like that this happens, and when it does, I feel like an ass for not having an alarm installed (like not having that makes it OK to rob me?). And that brings me to the next topic... insurance. We all pay premiums month after month for insurance, but any time a claim is needed they make it sound like a terrible idea. After a deductible, you only get a little bit of cash back, and then your premiums probably go up, or worse than that, if you make multiple claims they may well just stop insuring you. But you HAVE to have insurance, just in case the house burns down, which would be a total disaster.

This time the worst part was having to go through and re-create all of the game prototypes that were taken. In addition, a couple of published games were in that bag as well, one of which is currently out of print and will be difficult to replace.

When I got home from Rincon last weekend, I left a bunch of stuff in my car, but I brought that bag in because I didn't want someone to see it in my car and decide to break in and take it. Ha!

So that's what's up. Filling out paperwork and making another claim. Let's hope the insurance company doesn't drop me altogether.

In happier news, Rincon seemed to go over really well, and I got a contract from a European publisher for one of my games. So I guess it's not all bad.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

I don't blog much anymore (never did blog much, really), but I guess it doesn't hurt to post an update.

TMG

It's official - I now work for Tasty Minstrel Games! This is an exciting change, and I think it's going to be a positive one.

I'm still going to do some engineering on the side. We'll see how that goes. It may turn out to be just a transition sort of thing, but if I can manage to keep that up, then it'll be a nice source of additional income.

Kublacon

In other news, I just got back from KublaCon last weekend. For the first time in many years, I felt like I didn't really have a good time at the con. Don't get me wrong, I managed to enjoy myself for some of the time. But I felt like I spent far too much time just not doing anything - standing around looking for something to do, or sleeping in far too late. I did do some socializing, but even in that respect I feel like I barely talked to any given person, so most of the socializing seemed superficial. I don't know what I used to do differently, but I used to play 30-40 games over a 4 day con weekend, get lots of prototypes played, and I felt like I really got to visit with the people I rarely see.

I don't know what's different, but if that type of con experience becomes the standard, then that doesn't bode too well!

Other stuff going on...

SAGA

In 3 weeks I'm hosting another SAGA fundraiser for Rincon at the Holiday Inn. Last time (March 30) it went VERY well. I'm hoping the next one (June 22) will be equally fun and successful. I also hope I get to spend more time playing games this time.

Summer Vacation

Soon after that I leave for my annual trip to Seattle! I already got a plane ticket TO Seattle... but I have not yet figured out how I'm going to get from Seattle to Ann Arbor for Protospiel and back home. Those tickets seemed extraordinarily expensive, though I have a Delta flight voucher that might cover it. Sadly, Delta flies through Atlanta, so I'd be taking a roundabout path to get home!

I suppose I should make some plans for my trip!

In frisbee news, I have been able to play at league lately. I've even been able to run pretty well (though clearly not as hard or as fast as I used to), and most times it doesn't even leave me limping the next day! It's reassuring that I should be able to play at Potlatch again this year, and I should be in much better shape than last year.

Gaming

In the gaming world, I've played Tzolk'in several times lately, as well as Bora Bora, and I finally tried Terra Mystica. Terra Mystica is getting a lot of good press from my friends. I don't know if I like it as much as they do, but it seems like I ought to give it another try at least. I do like Bora Bora pretty well. And I'm happy to finally be playing my copy of Tzolk'in!

And in entirely other news...

Television

I have continue to watch Doctor Who, but frankly I'm not terribly impressed with the recent episodes, nor with Matt Smith as the Doctor. I don't know if it's Smith, or Moffit, or what - I really liked the early Matt Smith stuff. I also liked the recent companion (Clara), even if I thought they overplayed that "impossible girl" bit. I was not sorry to read today that after the 50th anniversary special and this year's Christmas special, the eleventh Doctor's time will be up. I'm hopeful that I'll like whoever takes up the mantle a bit better - like the early Matt Smith episodes (like the Silence and the Pandorica stuff).

On the other hand, I just watched the season finale of another BBC America show which was fantastic. I mean the whole show was fantastic, not the finale. This show is called Orphan Black - and I'm happy to hear it'll be back for a second season. At first I wasn't sure what they could do for he second season, but they left plenty of viable story open. I look forward to that show coming back, and I highly recommend Orphan Black to anyone who likes things that are awesome.